Durham Cathedral, located in the city of Durham, England, is a Norman era cathedral built in 1093, replacing the previous ‘White Church’. It is the seat of the Bishop of Durham and contains relics including Saint Cuthbert’s, Saint Oswald’s head, and the Venerable Bede’s remains, as well as the Durham Dean and Chapter Library, which houses early printed books, pre-Dissolution monastic accounts, and three copies of Magna Carta. The cathedral’s history dates back to the Diocese of Lindisfarne, founded by Saint Aidan in 635, which was later translated to York in 664. Among the many saints who originated at Lindisfarne Priory, the greatest was Saint Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, whose relics were transported to Durham after repeated Viking raids. According to legend, the monks followed two milk maids who were searching for a dun-coloured cow and found themselves on a peninsula formed by a loop in the River Wear. Cuthbert’s coffin became immovable, which was taken as a sign that the new shrine should be built on that spot, which became the City of Durham.
Initially, a simple temporary structure was built to house Saint Cuthbert’s relics. The shrine was then transferred to a sturdier, probably still wooden, building known as the White Church, which was itself replaced in 998 by a stone building also known as the White Church. Durham soon became a site of pilgrimage, and in 1080, William de St-Calais was appointed as the first Prince-Bishop by King William the Conqueror. In 1083, he founded the Benedictine Priory of St. Cuthbert at Durham and replaced the secular canons who had been in charge of the church and shrine of St Cuthbert with monks from the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. Bishop William of St. Calais began building the new cathedral in 1093, and the choir was completed by 1096. At the death of Bishop William of St. Calais, the Chapter House was ready enough to be used as his burial place. In 1104, the remains of St. Cuthbert were translated with great ceremony to the new shrine in the new cathedral.
The monks continued to look after the Shrine of St Cuthbert until the dissolution of the monasteries. Work proceeded on the nave, the walls of which were finished by 1128, and the high vault by 1135. The chapter house was built between 1133 and 1140. In the 1170s, Hugh de Puiset added the Galilee Chapel at the west end of the cathedral, which also holds the remains of the Venerable Bede. In 1228, Richard le Poore, Bishop of Salisbury, was translated to Durham and employed the architect Richard Farnham to design an eastern terminal for the building in which many monks could say the Daily Office simultaneously. The resulting building was the Chapel of the Nine Altars. In 1250, the original roof of the cathedral was replaced by a vault which is still in place. The towers also date from the early 13th century, but the central tower was damaged by lightning and replaced in two stages in the 15th century, the master masons being Thomas Barton and John Bell.
The Bishop of Durham was the temporal lord of the palatinate, often referred to as a Prince-bishop. The bishop competed for power with the Prior of Durham Monastery, and an agreement dated about 1229, known as Le Convenit, was entered into to regulate the relationship between the two magnates. The Shrine of Saint Cuthbert was located in the eastern apsidal end of the cathedral. The location of the inner wall of the apse is marked on the pavement, and Saint Cuthbert’s tomb is covered by a simple slab.
Today, there are daily Church of England services at the cathedral, and Durham Cathedral Choir sings daily except Mondays and holidays, receiving 727,367 visitors in 2019. In 1986, the cathedral and Durham Castle were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Posted by millicand@rocketmail.com on 2022-08-05 01:54:03